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See, here's the thing I'm worried about. I just finished the 4th book, and there's a bit in there where Harry's relating to Dumbledore about the fact that Voldemort used his blood to stage his return, which negates Harry's defense against him, as proven by Voldemort touching his face. And Dumbledore gets a "triumphant look" on his face. And when I mention this to my Mum, who's also a big fan, she says to me that she believes that Dumbledore's going to turn out to be a villain. And now I can't get that out of my head.
I think the thing I've been most impressed with is that in the last 3 chapters of "Goblet of Fire", Ms. Rowling manages to completely change the entire world that the stories take place in. The mobilization at the end is absolutely fantastic, and serves to combat the idea of Dumbledore as villain, at least for me. Finally Snape seems to be on the side of the good guys, which was something I was wondering about for the rest of the series.
The maturity of the books is one of those things I heard a lot of noise about when the fourth book came out. With the death of one of the students at the end of that book, a lot of parents were complaining that the book was too much for younger readers. This was combatted by the notion that those who were following the series were all 4 years older than they were when it started. I'm not sure that's a line of reasoning that can be followed. The first book was a children's book, in much the same way that "The Hobbit" or "Alice In Wonderland" were children's books. Even the second, while substantially darker, was no scarier or gorier than your average Goosebumps book. But the third and then the fourth books took quantum leaps forward in the level of darkness. I wonder if Ms. Rowling realized that, rather than a series of kids books, she really wanted to write a good fantasy series that could be enjoyed by all ages. I further wonder if this is the reason that the next book (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) is so late. Perhaps she's trying to guage what the proper maturity level for the book ought to be.
Anyway, those're my preliminary thoughts. At the risk of being ridiculed, I have to rate them as some of the most entertaining books I've ever read, and they did their job in that I'm salivating over the next one, even to the point where I'm speculating about the book just from the title.
Last thought. What did you think of the translation from book to film? It was only after seeing the film that I read the books, and I was quite impressed with how closely they stuck to the text.
Zoom.
p.s. Johnny, I think Ron's madly in love with Hermione, and vice versa. They are just 14, and I can see that kind of schoolyard crush thing happening. Especially where Hermione shouts at Ron to ask her out first, rather than as a last resort. |
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